We are not just at an ecological tipping point, but a social one, too. Brazil’s Indigenous people and the forests...
We are not just at an ecological tipping point, but a social one, too. Brazil’s Indigenous people and the forests they protect are facing annihilation.
If the Amazon rainforest alone is destroyed, the resulting carbon emissions could make it extremely difficult to limit global warming to less than two degrees. Burning fossil fuels is often seen as the only culprit in climate breakdown, but tropical deforestation is the second-largest source of carbon emissions in the world.
Even losing part of the Amazon could cause a tipping point where the forests no longer create enough rain to sustain themselves. This would cause droughts that would drive many species to extinction, devastate farming in the region and likely cause further violence.
